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SEWN: DENIM DISCIPLE

Saturday, 22 August 2015

To be more exact I am completely preoccupied with finding the perfect shade of indigo.

For me that's a deep clear indigo with a white weft (you know when the weave shows through slightly white?). Any other weft colour can make the blue look dirty or murky.

This denim is the perfect shade of indigo.

Secondly, I am obsessed with indigo blue skinny jeans (disturbingly swaying towards jeggings more and more). If I am not wearing lycra then, in winter at least, I will be found in my uniform of skinny jeans, boots/brogues and a cardigan or sweater.

This winter I wanted something a little different. Not a move away from denim, lord forbid, but maybe a different shape. In fact a shape completely at odds with the skinny silhouette.

I think I achieved it.

Mind you these babies spent some time in the naughty corner whilst I sulked about them. I knew pairing a rigid medium weight denim with my TNT pants pattern was always risky. Too much volume, not enough drape, yada yada. I felt like I was wearing clown pants. Perfectly fitting clown pants, but clown pants nonetheless.

I tried an extra few launderings to see if the denim would soften. It didn't to any great extent. I might have pouted. I may have lost a little sewjo. It wasn't pretty.

So I threw them literally into a corner, scrunched up in a sad little pile and took a time out. But I can't leave a project uncompleted. I'm not one for UFO's. If it doesn't work then scrap it and move on. And lo and behold if I didn't grab these suckers out of the naughty corner, shake them out and find that in their crinkled up state they had shamefacedly miraculously redeemed themselves!

That bit of roughing up saw them start to drape, to fall prettily, to basically live up to my vision. WOOHOOOOOOOO!

These underwent a few further tweaks. I kept the waist and hip fitting the same as they are still stupidly perfect.

I did want to raise the crotch depth/length (seriously I can never get these terms straight) so they'd look less skirt-like and more trouser. I shortened the length of the crotch seam by just over 1/4 inch both front and back before the curve of the crotch seam commenced (there was a handy shorten/lengthen line on the original pattern). This has raised the depth perfectly for a more standard pair of pants. I was worried it would completely mess up the fit, but the photos above and below completely put that to rest.

I also lengthened the leg by 14 inches, but kept the hem width the same as the culottes (as opposed to the ridiculous hem on the fancy pants/cat's pyjamas), and when hemming simply overlocked the raw edge, turned up 1 inch and machine sewed with a long stitch. I wanted to ensure the hem didn't get too "stiff" and structured to ensure the best drape and it worked superbly.

These are 100% completely "me". I feel utterly comfortable in these and for that reason they are perfect. Denim perfection.